Merry Christmas! I hope you are able to see your family today and enjoy each others companies. One of my newer favorite family traditions is making cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. The first few attempts were good but not as great as I wanted them to be.

I am honestly kind of embarrassed to admit just how many tries it has taken to perfect this one recipe. I am pleased to say it was well worth all the fails. The first recipe I tried had the best pillow-y like texture, so nice and tender and fluffy. It did not have enough cinnamon in it though, there needs to be a definitive cinnamon taste. Some cinnamon rolls have so little you do not even taste it, like how is that classified a cinnamon roll? Did I mention that cinnamon is my favorite baking spice, ever and I mean forever! It goes with chocolate, peanut butter, most fruits, it gets along with most baked goods. The second and third recipe had almost the same problem and I did not realize why at first. Like I said above I love cinnamon, so I thought why don’t I put some cinnamon in the dough? Nobody that I know has ever done that, like that seems strange. Well turns out it is not all that strange because I found out the reason why it’s not suggested.

As everyone knows baking is a science and that is exactly the reason not to put cinnamon in the dough. Cinnamon inhibits the properties in active yeast, so the dough doesn’t have the ability to rise as much. When the dough does not rise it creates a different texture the cinnamon roll, it was not bad, but it also wasn’t quite as tender or fluffy which is what we were looking for. The fourth recipe is luckily everything I want in a cinnamon roll, not too sweet that it hurt your teeth. Just the right amount of sweetness to cinnamon. If you don’t love cinnamon as much as I do you can decrease the amount of cinnamon.

Cinnamon Roll Recipe

 

Dough:

1 cup milk

1 Tablespoon active yeast

4 Tablespoons butter, unsalted, softened

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

4 cups flour

Filling:

½ teaspoon nutmeg

2 Tablespoons cinnamon

½ cup (1 stick) butter, unsalted, softened

1 cup brown sugar

Icing:

3 Tablespoons butter, unsalted, melted

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

½ teaspoon salt

4 cups powdered sugar

4 Tablespoons milk

Directions:

• Start by scalding the butter in a saucepan. Scalding just is warming the milk, until it just starts to boil. Then take it off the heat and add the butter and the sugar and stir until the butter is melted.
• Once the milk mixture is just lukewarm to the touch (if it’s too warm it will kill the yeast, and if it is too cold then it won’t activate) place in mixer and add the yeast to bloom. The blooming process takes about 5 minutes, just wait until the yeast has doubled in size.
• Add eggs and mix until they are combined. Next, add the salt and the flour, only add one cup of flour at a time until the dough pulls away mostly from the side of the mixing bowl. It will still be slightly tacky to touch, knead it for about 5 minutes until it become elastic. Keep kneading until you can take a piece of the dough and stretch it super thin to almost see through it without it ripping. If you are going to knead the dough by hand save some of the last cup to flour the surface and knead it by hand, just make sure not to add any additional flour. Even if the dough is slightly sticky just keep kneading and it will become less sticky over the course of time. If you do not want to knead it by hand just continue with the dough attachment on the mixer for around 5 mins.
• Place the dough back in the greased, mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave it, in a warm dark place for two hours, or until it doubles in size.
• While the dough is rising make the filling. Mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter until it becomes a paste.
• Instead of using flour on your rolling surface I suggest using powdered sugar, it will help the dough not stick but also not dry it out. Roll the dough into a large rectangle, about 24×15 but it does not have to be exact.
• Spread all the filling on top, leaving an inch on one of the long sides open. Roll it up vertically starting away from the side without filling. Now cut into 12 equal size rolls, about 2 inches each roll. I like to cut it using unflavored floss, but you can also use a serrated knife. Place into a greased 9×13 pan, cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
• Heat the oven to 350 and bake for 18-20 minutes or until golden. While the cinnamon rolls are baking, make the icing, start by melting the butter and then add salt, milk and vanilla and mix until fully combined. Next add the powdered sugar and mix until no lumps and you have a nice and creamy, luscious frosting consistency.
• When the cinnamon rolls are cooked take out and top with icing and enjoy!